Sell you a Bridge chapter 198

March 17th 2016 Doomhallow Hall  9:00 PM EDT

The  creature before me was...intimidating. It was about ten feet tall, with  ghostly green fire illuminating the eyes. It's body was a massive suit  of void black armor swirled with purple, with the ghostly green of  ectoplasm shining eerily from the joints and the symbol I knew denoted  the heartless on it's chest. From it's back rose a pair or wide jagged  devil wings, adding a demonic cast to the being, and as it started down  at me I could only gape in awe.

It's  aura was...massive. Absolutely huge, and I knew without a doubt that  THIS could hang with that damn scarab. I wasn't sure if it could take on  the warrior class bug, but then again, there was no rule saying I could  only summon one of these. I grinned at it, looking to the girls. "What  do you think? It's a fusion of every ability and power I could manage.  It isn't a heartless anymore, and it isn't a void summon. It's unique to  me, my own personal creation. I think I'll call them...Soulless. This  one is a Soulless Knight."

A  bit edgy, but the combination of ghost and heartless with some void  thrown in was perfect for the name. The towering behemoth didn't seem to  dislike it in any case. Zee was staring in awe at the creature. Which  made sense, because my girl loved her some magic, and this was a  completely new branch that only someone with my abilities could use.  Creating a brand new magical creature for her to study was without a  doubt, a sure fire way to catch her interest. She wheeled on me. "I want  one!"

I  burst out laughing. "I can only make Knights right now. I need to do  some more void research before I can make anything more advanced. But  I'll let you study this one while I work on that. In the meantime I can  summon a few new ones every day. I don't want to name all of them, but I  think being my first this one deserves a name." I bit my lip, looking  at the towering beast of metal and green ghostfire. "I think I'll call  him...Sigfried. That work for you Sig?" I raised en eyebrow at the  armored behemoth, who nodded once in agreement. Sapient then, neat.

I  smiled broadly. "Excellent, then I suppose when I can I'll just have to  build you a regiment. Huh I wonder if you inherited my sword skills?" I  hoped so, but regardless, his presence was going to be a huge benefit  to me, not to mention all the other similarly powerful Knights I could  make, or any future Soulless. I'd made the right call getting this  keyblade. Speaking of which...I looked down at the thing.

It  was just as powerful in it's own way as any weapon I'd ever had. The  ninety percent discount to summoning was absolutely broken, and it would  give me a solid chunk of points off using other magic too. It came at  the cost of any physical enhancement, but my magic was hands down my  biggest asset, and this thing was made for it. I stroked the green  veined metal slowly, enjoying the black void material's feel against my  skin. It whispered to me. Gave me it's name. "Tartarus." The girls  looked at me, confused. "The name of the keyblade. It's Tartarus, it  just told me."

It  was telling me lots of things actually. About heartless, about the  dark, about my abilities and what they could do. My powers had grown in  ways other than just an exponential increase. My shadow porting cost  nothing now, and more than that it could take me places it never could  have before. To other worlds even. Nothing I really needed at the  moment, but it was damn interesting. Corridors of Darkness, it called  them. Though anyone who wasn't void blooded like I was would have some  issues traveling through them.

I  released my grip and let the blade dissolve again. I looked to Dreamer,  who was staring at Sigfried in awe. Her voice was hushed as she spoke  up about my new trick. "This being...he is powerful. I would put him on  par with one of the weaker New Gods, at least in their corporeal forms.  To make something such as he with only your own strength, to create a  brand new breed of creature with simply you abilities and  intelligence...you have outdone yourself Morgan." She frowned worriedly.  "I simply hope it will be enough. Remember that we are facing a  universal power, with millions of planets at their disposal."

I  nodded. "Yeah, but based on what we've heard from B'arzz they aren't  exactly free to act. This particular empire is at odds with the  Lanterns, and this is their turf. That's why the cloak and dagger  bullshit with Luthor and co. These assholes need an invite to turn up  here, and if we push them hard enough to make them genuinely decide  we're a threat the Lantern Corps isn't going to sit idly by while they  stomp all over their territory. They can't afford to commit too much to  the fight here, which means we don't need an endless stream of warriors.  Just a decent sized force."

I  hoped. If we did get caught in the middle of a war between the Lanterns  and The Reach we would be pretty screwed. Still, with a few hundred  Knights we should be able to stop the force they had here in their  tracks, or at least pose enough of a threat for the heroes and villains  of earth to weigh in and tip the balance. I turned to the girls. "But  that all depends on them being enough to hang with a scarab. And that  means we need a field test. Granted we could use B'arzz, but I'm  thinking we kill two birds with one stone. I want to pit him against  Blue Beetle, and show the team why I'm not to be dismissed."

If  we were going to be working with them it would be best they knew to  take me seriously, but I also didn't want to give away my best tricks.  This served multiple purposes. Plus it would let me know how much of my  skills Sigfried got and how much I had to personally teach him. I had  the Warlord's style which would suit a massive armored figure, but if I  had to manually instruct him it would really slow down my production of  soldiers to combat The Reach.

I  supposed if necessary I could do some research on easy to train  formation tactics. Maybe something like a shield wall. Spears and  shields would do a lot of damage, though the wings kind of complicated  matters. Trying to work on formation tactics in three dimensions made  them way more complicated I imagined. Regardless it was childs play to  open a corridor of darkness to the cave for Sigfried and I though  Dreamer and Zee had to take the long way. We vanished into the dark in a  writhing cloud of shadows, ending up in the middle of the cave when we  came out the other side.

The  reaction was immediate and dramatic, every single person in the cave  whirled and either pointed weapons at me or took up a defensive posture.  When they saw it was me they relaxed slightly, but when they saw Sig  that momentary reprieve went right out the window. I waved to Nightwing,  who was sitting on one of the couches. "Hey man. You hung up on me so I  figured I'd just drop in. Want to meet my new friend?" I gestured to  the behemoth in metal armor towering behind me.

Nightwing  gritted his teeth. "Morgan. Maybe you can tell me how you got in here  without a zeta tube, WHY you did so, and WHAT the fuck is behind you.  Because I don't have time for your nonsense today." He paused. "Or  frankly ever, but today especially since we're in the middle of planning  out our raid on the Reach base. If you're just here to show off  your...disturbing new toy, it'll have to wait." His aura was seething  with frustration and rage, but he was in front of his team so he was  trying to put on a calm front.

That  was boring, so I ignored him. I turned to Blue Beetle, sitting on the  couch next to Impulse gaming and out of his armor. "Hey, Beetle. I  wanted to test out my new buddy Sigfried against a scarab, you think you  have time for a tussle? I'll pay you ten grand." I glanced at  Nightwing. "Unlike some cheapskates I don't mind compensating people for  their work. Does the League even pay you guys?" Ten grand was literal  pocket change to me, so it was worth throwing it out to make Nightwing  seethe a bit more, plus it made it more likely Beetle would say yes.

Nightwing  literally lost his ability to speak, clearly apoplectic from rage, but  the scarab bearer hopped to his feet looking pumped. "Hell yeah I'll  take ten grand for a fight! Thanks man that's awesome!" Within seconds  he expanded his armor over his form. "So where do we do this? Outside?  In the training room?" The kid's aura was practically vibrating from  excitement. I noticed he hadn't mentioned if they got paid. Man were the  JL really that cheap? Though they did seem like the "justice is it's  own reward" type.

As  a reformed master thief I at least was smart enough to shell out cash  for my people. Still I was curious to see their training area, so I went  ahead and suggested that. "I'd say the training area would be fine. I'm  sure this place can handle it." I actually wasn't, but they had a half  kryptonian banging around in here so it had to be at least sturdy enough  to hang  on for a few minutes. I mostly just wanted to see if Sigfried  had my skills and could take a few hits from a scarab I wasn't planning  for them to fight to the death or anything.

Nightwing  looked like he was about to spit fire, probably mentally berating the  kid for being greedy (despite being the child of a literal fucking  billionaire) and wanting to claim the money was stolen but unable to do  so since I'd already said it wasn't from my thieving and he couldn't  find any proof I was lying. I smirked at him, seeing his aura flare with  rage, and then walked past him toward where Beetle was leading me,  apparently the training room he had mentioned. I was pretty interested  to see what the place was like.

We  got there pretty quick and I was...underwhelmed. It was a big ass open  stone cavern with a mat on the floor. There was some kind of display or  computer system up top that kept track of combat. I took my place at the  side of the ring, standing next to Nightwing, Impulse, Wonder Girl, who  had followed us in, and Super Boy, who was in the corner lifting  weights until he saw us and came to see what was going on. We filled him  in and he seemed interested, and even called next bout with Sigfreid if  he did ok.

Once  we had everyone present I made sure to clarify the situation. "Just so  we all know, this is to see if Sigfried, my new summon by the way, can  hang with a scarab. The object isn't to hurt anyone, but to make sure he  has any skills and see how much damage he can deal with. If anyone  involved, even the bystanders, call the fight, everyone stops ok?" I  didn't want there to be any accidents and I knew the scarab could hear  us and had a tendency to overreact. Beetle nodded, clearly ready to get  on with this and I smiled. "Ok then. Fight."